


I love you, too

by Lixxie



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Allura and shiro aren’t really in it btw, Alternate Universe - High School, Childhood Friends, F/F, F/M, High School Musical References, M/M, Multi, Unrequited Love, Yall know the feel when you fall for your super affectionate straight friend?, and like they all become friends in middle/high school, and they’re probably gonna swear, anywAYYYY, kinda I guess anyway, like it’s very important you understand that because it’s the whole premise of this fic, like this is just me projecting onto Keith so like sorry but he doesn’t get to end up with lance, so that’s why it’s rated teen, there’s some drama, yeah that’s this
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-15
Updated: 2020-05-15
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:28:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,496
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24208957
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lixxie/pseuds/Lixxie
Summary: Keith had always been kind of a loner. It wasn’t because he couldn’t make friends it was because… well so maybe he couldn’t make friends. Or at least. He couldn’t exactly make close friends. Which is, after all, quite the distinction. A friend is someone you play with at recess sometimes, who you race across the monkey bars. A close friend is someone you talk to, someone you hang out with outside of school, someone you stay close to after grade school, after middle school, after high school, even. Keith just didn’t make that kind of friend.ORKeith is a loner and then he makes friends and he’s perpetually kinda sad.
Relationships: Coran/being wise and also kinda weird, Hunk/Shay (Voltron), Keith/Lance (Voltron), Lance/Nyma (Voltron), Lance/Plaxum (Voltron), Nadia Rizavi/Veronica, pidge/being freaky smart
Comments: 1
Kudos: 3





	I love you, too

Keith had always been kind of a loner. It wasn’t because he  _ couldn’t  _ make friends it was because… well so maybe he couldn’t make friends. Or at least. He couldn’t exactly make close friends. Which is, after all, quite the distinction. A friend is someone you play with at recess sometimes, who you race across the monkey bars. A close friend is someone you talk to, someone you hang out with outside of school, someone you stay close to after grade school, after middle school, after high school, even. Keith just didn’t make that kind of friend.

And he was fine with that, mostly. It was enough to go to school, scrape by with B’s and C’s, fight a few bullies, and run around the playground with the other kids. Elementary school isn’t so complicated. Neither is middle school, theoretically.

Really, going to the Garrison Middle School  _ wasn’t _ that complicated, at least not at first. He kept a few friends from elementary school, people who had come to the same middle school as him: there was Nadia, who always had something nice to say, James, who always had something mean to say, and Ryan, who always had something interesting to say. Keith had almost all his classes with them, and, though he and James bickered a fair bit and even had a go at each other occasionally, the four of them had a decent time together, just as they had in previous years. The fact that they were now at a new school had little effect on any of them.

In seventh grade, everything changed. In seventh grade, Veronica came along. Nadia latched onto her like an affectionate leech; the two became fast friends. Nadia’s drifting from the group destabilized them. As the patent “nice one,” Nadia's presence had been an integral part of their group dynamic.

Maybe Veronica’s coming to the Garrison wouldn’t have been such a big deal, except that she brought with her several other students. Apparently another middle school in the area had closed, so the students who had gone there had been forced into other schools, like the Garrison.

There was Ina, who got on with Ryan like fire to a pile of dry sticks -- the two of them could talk for hours about god-knows-what new scientific discovery that Keith had little to no interest in. With just James and Keith, practically sworn enemies, left of the group, there was little group to speak of. James drifted off with Ryan, Ina, Nadia, and Veronica, who had formed a sort of clique of their own, and Keith, for whatever reason, felt he couldn’t quite follow.

But along with Ina and Veronica came a scary-smart sixth grader, a tiny girl named Katie who had been known to kick shins if called by that name. Instead, she was called “Pidge,” a nickname, Keith was later told, that had been coined by her older brother, who was a super-cool high school freshman.

Pidge was, despite being a year younger than him, in all of Keith’s classes, and her dry sense of humor and unnerving threats were a source of endless entertainment to Keith. The two quickly became friends, though it wasn’t until nearly Winter Break that the two actually hung out outside of their shared classes.

Pidge suggested that Keith, who had, up until that point, been eating alone behind the field, come and sit with her and her friends, people Keith had seen but to whom he had never spoken: Lance and Hunk were their names, apparently.

The two boys were a little intimidating to Keith, he had to admit. Though he wasn’t scared of a little physical altercation, the two of them, especially Lance, had a way of challenging him, probably without meaning to.

“So what Hogwarts house are you guys in?” Lance once asked, amicably enough. “I’m a mighty Gryffindor!” He flexed his muscles cartoonishly.

“I’m a Ravenclaw,” Pidge said, picking at a carrot in disgust.

“Duh, you’re like the smartest person at the school,” Hunk grinned. “My moms say I’m a Hufflepuff.”

“What about you, Keith?” Lance asked.

Keith was stumped. He’d read the books and, if you’d’ve asked him before, he would have said he was a Slytherin. Somehow, though, he felt he had to prove himself to Lance and though Slytherins weren’t evil by nature, they were definitely the most evil house.

“I guess I’m a Gryffindor too?”

It wasn’t rare for Keith to second-guess himself or fudge the truth a little around Lance, Hunk and Pidge. They were all so cool and friendly and smart, and Keith had to admit he felt like a fourth wheel to an already-perfect group sometimes. He just did whatever he could to put himself slightly more on their level.

And so it went on for about a year. It wasn’t until the second semester of their eighth grade (Pidge’s seventh grade) year that Keith finally,  _ finally _ got what he hadn’t known he’d been missing: close friends. At some point, Lance had started inviting him out with the three of them, out to 7-11 to get crappy food, out to Starbucks, over to their houses. He’d always declined, making up some excuse about homework or “not being allowed,” though in truth he always did his homework at the last second anyway and his foster parents didn’t much care what he did as long as he didn’t die or get anyone killed. Really, Keith hadn’t felt ready. Say he had gone to Starbucks. What would he order? How would he order? Would he bring money? How much money should he bring? What if Lance asked him whether he wanted to sit inside or outside; what would he say? What if he chose wrong? Or got a cringey drink? Or-- ?

But at last he was comfortable enough around the three of them that he accepted. They went and got pizza together. Everyone had brought their own (parents’) money, but Lance insisted (with utterly unnecessary, but entirely too characteristic) gravitas, that he pay in full, since he was the one who had suggested such an expensive activity. They sat in a booth together, Hunk and Lance on one side, Pidge and Keith on the other. They ordered a pepperoni pizza to split, and they all got cokes.

“Okay, okay, let’s play never have I ever,” Lance said, mouth full of pizza.

Pidge gave him a fondly disgusted look and a somewhat belligerent “Fine,” while Hunk nodded eagerly.

“I’ll go first,” Hunk said, giving Lance a mischievous side-eye. The two of them had been best friends since kindergarten and Hunk was clearly planning on exposing Lance. “Never have I ever… forced someone to become friends with me.”

“Wha- I have  _ never _ !” Lance shouted, pressing the back of his hand to his forehead dramatically. “You  _ wound _ me Hunk, you  _ w o u n d  _ me!”

A few other patrons gave the group withering looks and Lance lowered his voice to speaking level.

“Everyone I’ve ever known has just wanted to be my friend, I can’t help that I’m charming and handsome and awesome. Name one person, just one, that I’ve forced to become friends with me.”

Hunk and Pidge looked pointedly at Keith, who raised his eyebrows in surprise, not expecting to be roped into the argument. 

“I meannnn,” Pidge said slowly, “You’ve kind of been badgering Keith for a year now.”

“Okay  _ listen _ -”

“No, I wanted to be your friend,” Keith said quietly. “I mean, I wanted to be friends with all of you.”

The table was awkwardly silent for a moment, and then:

“Awwwwwww,” Lance sighed, reaching across the table and ruffling Keith’s hair. “Also I told you so Hunk, I  _ so _ told you so. I’m innocent.”

“I never said you were innocent,” Keith said snarkely, a little emboldened by the hair ruffle. Pidge snorted and clapped him on the arm.

“Gasp! Betrayal! Hunk, what do you think of this?” Lance said, draping himself across Hunk’s lap and, ever one for theatrics, reaching up and grabbing his face tragically.

Hunk looked down at Lance for a moment, silently playing into Lance’s bit, feigning tears and clasping Lance’s hands.

Pidge fairly climbed over the table and peeled Lance off of Hunk. “Okay first of all did you just say gasp instead of actually gasping?”

“Yeah and also you know we’re all siding with Keith here. You’re like the least innocent person we know,” Hunk said, shaking out of his bit with a grin.

“I don’t even swear,” Lance pouted.

“Sure but you love your dick jokes,” Pidge said, “not to mention that you’re guilty of more than coercing people into friendship. Can you say unwarranted romantic gestures?”

“Listen here fudgers- ”

… It was fun. Keith could say things and not have to worry about hurting anyone’s feelings or starting a fight. They all got along so well that even when they argued, they did it for fun. Keith cherished the friendship, but it ended almost before it started.


End file.
